Recent Acquisition

Emory Washburn Papers, ca. 1822-1895.

AAS was fortunate to acquire at auction a large collection of personal and professional papers of Emory Washburn (1800-1877) of Worcester and Cambridge, MA. A lawyer, Washburn was governor of Massachusetts from 1854-1855 and taught for two decades at the Harvard Law School. The collection includes correspondence of Washburn, his wife Marianne Giles Washburn (1810-1898), their daughter Marianne B. "Minnie" Batchelder (1831-1922), and her son Samuel F. "Frank" Batchelder (1870-1927). In addition to correspondence there are diaries, orations, and a lengthy journal of an 1852 tour of Europe.

"One day I am visited by a collector of ordination sermons; the next, by
a collector of 4th of July orations; then comes a collector of geography;
another wants religious newspapers; another wants every book printed in
New York before 1700. I accommodate myself to all; for I want every thing
and collect every thing, and I have more zeal than the whole of them: and
in this way I am kept very busy."
~Christopher Columbus Baldwin
3rd Librarian of AAS